Pact Sudan: Stories from the Field

Media as a Catalyst of Change

Southern Sudan is blessed with a great diversity of peoples and identities. In addition to its complex mix of ethnic groups with rich cultural traditions, there are numerous religious beliefs and traditions, including Animism, Christianity and Islam. These identities, however, are a mixed blessing; if manipulated and used to foster divisions, they can create a potentially explosive state of affairs brimming with the possibility of conflict. Over the last 21 years, a bitter civil war between the north and south further widened the rifts among communities in the south.

The end of the war and the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) brought a wave of new beginnings and freedoms – political, social and economic. Unity, however, is elusive in this region, with the evidence of inter-ethnic clashes over resources and border tensions that are a threat to the CPA. Pact Sudan’s Conflict Threats and Peace Assessment Report looked at contentious issues that could pose threats to the CPA. From the findings, Pact initiated a series of activities that would help mitigate the threats to the CPA. The media was identified as a key partner in the peace building process and Peace Journalism for Change training was held in Juba from 3rd to 7th December 2007, which attracted 21 media representatives from Southern Sudan and South Kordofan.

The training was designed to equip the journalists with skills to operate in conflict situations. Journalists learned how to adequately handle the effects of hate speech and emphasized the role of accurate reporting to minimize effects of misrepresentation of facts. It also stressed the importance of learning how to develop conflict sensitive news articles, and how to soundly interpret and adequately respond to early warning indicators and reports. Participants, particularly radio journalists, honed skills on how to appeal to a socially diverse audience when discussing contentious issues, without alienating sections of the audience and harmonizing all views to create an open forum for discussion.

The general feeling from the participants was that the training was enlightening, informative and practical. The in-house sessions were interactive, with the sharing of experiences and insights from various people from different areas which enriched the content of the workshop. The field visits were very practical and hands-on, with participants teaming up and setting out to explore potential news stories where they could apply their newly learned skills. The culmination of all these activities led to the presentation of all the news articles at the workshop, where they were subjected to peer criticism, and later they were aired or printed in the respective radios and newspapers.

Story by Aisha AIi